The City on the Edge of Forever (episode)
After taking an accidental overdose of cordrazine, Doctor Leonard McCoy goes back in time and changes history. Summary The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) passes through violent time distortions surrounding a strange planet. During one of these events the center console on the bridge sparks and Lt. Sulu is injured. Doctor McCoy is called to the bridge for emergency first aid. He prepares a hypo of cordrazine, warned by Kirk that it's "tricky stuff". After Sulu is revived, the ship passes through a very heavy time displacement that rocks the ship. McCoy falls on the hypo and is injected with an extreme overdose of the red liquid. He shouts in pain. The negative effects of the drug push him to paranoia, and he is convinced that he is at risk of death from "murderers" and "assasins". He breaks free from a hold on him by Spock and Kirk and escapes to the transporter room and transports to the planet below. Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Scott and two security officers beam down to look for McCoy. During their search, Spock and Kirk discover the source of the time displacement. It is a rough, egg-shapped ring. Upon discussion between Spock and Kirk, the portal introduces itself as the Guardian of Forever, and being its own beginning and its own ending. It begins to display the history of Earth through the center of the ring. A curtain of mist descends across the images. McCoy is discovered and subdued by a Vulcan nerve pinch. After the struggle, Kirk and Spock return to the portal. Spock is upset that he is not recording the events visible through the portal. He begins recording. McCoy awakens from his unconsciousness and learns enough to realize he can escape through the Guardian. He races past Spock and Kirk, through the Guardian, and into Earth's past. Then Uhura notes that contact with the Enterprise has been lost. The Guardian explains that history has been altered, resulting in the ship's absence. Kirk and Spock are forced to enter the portal in an attempt to stop McCoy from changing history. Spock uses his tricorder recording to estimate the appropriate time for their leap. The two arrive on Earth in 1930 in the United States. They are obviously out of place with their Starfleet uniforms and Spock's pointed ears. Kirk steals clothes from a fire escape to aid in their disguise. A policeman catches the two in the act, and after a poor excuse for the theft, and Spock's ears, they subdue the officer with the Vulcan nerve pinch. With other law enforcement hot on their heels, they duck into a soup kitchen called the Twenty-First Street Mission. There they meet Edith Keeler, the woman who runs the shelter. Unable to view the video acquired on the tricorder, the two must work to pay for supplies to modify its rate of playback. Kirk returns with radio tubes, wires and other items. Spock is noticably frustrated at the lack of technology of the 1930's. He spends many hours building circuits and connections. After several successes and setbacks, the tricorder eventually reveals its wealth of information. Spock sees Edith Keeler's obituary. Then he plays the recording for Kirk -- and they see a report about Edith Keeler's meeting with United States President Roosevelt. She cannot have two futures; they've discovered the point where McCoy altered the past. But did he save her? Or kill her? And how? McCoy arrives approximately one week after Kirk and Spock. His face is mottled and green from the effects of the cordrazine. He shouts, "Murderers! Killers!", from his paranoia. He meets a homeless man who frequents the 21st Street Mission and questions him about their location, time, planet, and constellations. His shock at the unfamiliar world, combined with the side effects of the drug, force McCoy into unconsciousness. The homeless man searches McCoy and finds his phaser. While trying to assess its value, the man engages the device and annihilates himself. We are briefly left to wonder if this is the alteration: did this man's inadvertent death alter Keeler's future? After sleeping off some of the effects of the cordrazine, McCoy makes his way to the shelter, where Ms. Keeler helps him into a room where he can rest. Spock narrowly misses seeing him in the lunch room. With more work, Spock concludes that McCoy changed history by saving Edith Keeler's life. Keeler went on to organize a peace movement that delayed the United States' entry into the war -- and Germany was able to complete its heavy water experiments, and its rocket experiments. With atomic bombs, and rockets to carry them, the Nazis conquered the world. Kirk admits that he is in love with Edith Keeler. Spock informs him, "Edith Keeler must die." The effects of the drug slowly wear off and McCoy eventually has the strength to offer to help at the shelter, in gratitude. Edith explains that her "young man" is taking her to a Clark Gable movie. McCoy, not knowing who Clark Gable is, shocks Edith with his lack of knowledge. That evening, Kirk and Edith are strolling along on their date. As they make their way across the street, Edith mentions going to the Clark Gable movie. Kirk asks, "A what?" Edith responds in shock that Dr. McCoy said the same thing. Kirk, finally hearing of McCoy's existence, tells Edith to stay put and heads back to the shelter yelling for Spock. As he approaches the curb, McCoy exits the front door. With expressions of joy and relief, they hug. Edith, confused by the commotion, begins to cross the street. A large truck is heading her direction. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy look on to see the event that is about to take place. Kirk restrains McCoy and prevents him from rushing to Edith to save her life. "Do you have any idea what you just did?" McCoy questions. Kirk, in agony, pushes him away. Spock responds, "He knows, Doctor. He knows." Having corrected history, the three men return through the portal to their own time. The Guardian offers more opportunities to visit the past, but Kirk declines, saying only "Let's get the hell out of here." A heartbroken Kirk and the rest of the landing party return to the Enterprise. History has been saved, but at a terrible personal cost. Memorable Quotes "One day soon, man is going to be able to harness incredible energies, maybe even the atom, energies that could ultimately hurl us to other worlds in... some sort of spaceship. And the men that reach out into space will be able to find ways to feed the hungry millions of the world and to cure their diseases. They will be able to find a way to give each man hope and a common future. And those are the days worth living for..." - Edith Keeler "A question. Since before your sun burned hot in space, and before your race was born, I have awaited ... a question." - The Guardian "Are you being, or machine?" - Kirk "I am both, and neither. I am my own beginning, my own ending." - The Guardian "I see no reason for answers to be couched in riddles." - Spock "I answer as simply as your level of understanding makes possible." - The Guardian the Guardian's nature ''"A time portal, Captain. A gateway to other times, and dimensions, if I'm correct." - Spock "As correct as possible, for you. Your science knowledge is obviously primitive." - The Guardian "My friend is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain. " - Kirk "Perhaps the unfortunate accident I had as a child." - Spock "The unfortunate accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical...rice picker. But fortunately, there was an American missionary living close by who was actually a, uh... skilled plastic surgeon in civilian life." - Kirk explaining to a police officer "A lie is a poor way to say hello" - Edith Keeler Background Information *This was the most popular episode of the original series (TOS), earning a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. * Watch for Scott and one of the security officers looking for their transporter positions at the end of the episode when the crew are beamed back aboard the Enterprise. * The Guardian of Forever claims it is its own beginning, its own ending. But when asked by Kirk if it can alter the speed at which time passes in the portal, the Guardian says it was "made" to offer the past in this way and that it cannot change. There seems to be a contradiction in logic: A machine/entity capable of self-creation (its own beginning), yet unable to change itself. * The portal is revisited in the animated series episode Yesteryear, and numerous books. * Harlan Ellison was dismayed with the changes Gene Roddenberry made to his story (which included, among other things, a drug addicted Enterprise crewman). So much so, that he wished his credit removed, a request Roddenberry denied. * Bantam Books published a series of novelizations called "foto-novels," which took photographic stills from actual episodes and arranged word balloons and text over them, to create a comic book formatted story. The first installment was an adaptation of this episode. * A nice inside joke appears in this episode. The dairy wagon says "Widen Dairy" on it-- this was a reference to Production Supervisor Bernard Widen. * James Doohan can be seen rubbing his neck after McCoy leaps into the portal, yet McCoy never struck Scotty in his escape. A more involved escape by McCoy was likely filmed and edited out. * The alley in which Kirk steals the clothing from the fire-escape is the same alley seen in Miri, in which Spock and the guards have debris dumped on them by the children. * The footage seen through the time portal is lifted from old Paramount films for the most part. * The effects team nicknamed the Guardian "the big donut." * Well-documented by fans is the fact that Clark Gable was by no means a leading man in 1930. We could take 1930 as a round figure, but for the fact that Kirk says 1936 is "six years from now." * Some excellent double-exposures allow our heroes to leap out of brick walls in this episode. * Seven people are beamed up to the ship at the end, but the transporter has only six pads. * Though uncredited, the yeoman at the beginning of this episode looks like Maurishka Taliferro, who will appear in the next episode, Operation: Annihilate! as Yeoman Zahra. * The stock footage representing 1930 New York is absolutely excellent, but if you look very carefully in the footage of the apartments with the outdoor marketplace in front of them, you will see two funny anachronisms: a nuclear fallout shelter sign on a wall and a lady wearing 1960s horn-rim glasses! Links and References Main Cast * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * James Doohan as Scott * George Takei as Sulu * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura * Majel Barrett as Christine Chapel * John Winston as Kyle * David L. Ross as Galloway * Eddie Paskey as Leslie Guest Stars * Joan Collins as Edith Keeler * Michael Barrier as DeSalle (Guard #1) * Hal Baylor as Policeman * John Harmon as Rodent * Howard Culver as the Drunk * Bart LaRue as Guardian of Forever (voice) * Adolf Hitler as Adolf Hitler (voice) * Cary Loftin as Truck Driver (stunt) * David Perna as McCoy stunt double * Bobby Bass as Scott stunt double * Mary Statier as Keeler stunt double References Alnitak; Cordrazine; Clark Gable; duodynetic field core; flop; Great Depression; Guardian of Forever; mechanical rice picker; mnemonic memory circuit; stone knives and bearskins; 20th Century; Twenty-First Street Mission. *Harlan Ellison; The City on the Edge of Forever; White Wolf Publishing; ISBN 1-56-504964-0 (1st edition, hardcover, 1996) City on the Edge of Forever, The de:Griff in die Geschichte